Towards the end of the pregnancy

We're coming towards the end of Ella's pregnancy and her waistline has long since disappeared! Since day 40 of her gestation she's been wormed daily with liquid wormer that has seen me adding a little wet food to disguise the taste - that seems to have gone down well ;)

We also had to start feeding her 3 meals a day not long after that as the poor girl seems to be forever hungry. However now she can't eat a lot in one go and she's really good at regulating herself so she doesn't make herself so full that she's sick.

The whelping box has been up for a couple of weeks now and at the beginning of this week we picked up a head pad for the puppies from the wholesalers. Ella has been sleeping in her box at night to give her respite from the naughty sheltie puppy she currently mothers, as I remember how precious sleep was from my own pregnancy! She seems more comfortable than I was, perhaps because of all the great treatment she receives from the SMART clinic. She had her last visit before the puppies on Monday where Lowri gave her some acupuncture, but no treadmill for the expectant mother. Lowri commented on how strong her stomach muscles must be because they're doing a great job of keeping all those puppies in there - her tummy is like a drum now!

My beautiful girl :)

Last weekend we met another prospective puppy owner who made the journey from Cheltenham down to see Tigger in Honiton, before seeing us in Yatton on their way back.  It was great to see such effort made, makes you realise people are really serious about finding  'the one'! Definitely another forever home found for one of these precious puppies, and some new good friends made too :)

On Tuesday we popped in for our first appointment at the new vets we've registered with, Watkins & Tasker. We loved being clients of Sue Yeo, but as her out of hours care has been transferred to a surgery over 45 minutes away from us, we knew it wouldn't be sensible for Ella if she needed any help with labour. The appointments were for Kai & Tinker (one of our cats) and were just for routine vaccinations, but it was good to have been in and seen the surgery. If we need any help now it'll only be 5 or 15 minutes away and that's much better for my peace of mind :)

On a less practical note we found ourselves wandering around Comet yesterday for Mike's birthday present of a new camera - okay so I might enjoy using it too ;) His old camera was bought for his trip to Hawaii in his days as a single, carefree man many moons ago - it's showing signs of wear and tear now, and it needed replacing so we had a reliable way of recording the puppies lives as newborns and as they grow :)

So at Thursday now and could be expecting the arrival of these puppies from Saturday onwards. We're pretty confident about the date as Ella was blood tested during her season so we know exactly when she ovulated. But then of course Mother Nature could always throw us a curved ball, so we're watching Ella closely just to be sure! We're really lucky to have many people offering to help with whelping advice, child care, dog care (for Kai & Diva), and lots of wonderful good wishes. It brings home to me how much the agility community is a family and how we're all excitedly awaiting these puppies as new members to it.

So today we're doing our normal thing of taking my Grandma to the Post Office/ shopping/ lunch extravaganza - another exhausting day, but it's lovely to see the children spending time with their Great-grandmother. This evening will have to be devoted to getting everything together for Daybreak's tax return so that the decks are clear for the weekend. There's nothing like working to a deadline for getting things done ;)

Today I'm grateful for husband who has supported me this week by taking some time off work to ease the load. Don't know what I'd do without him :)